303 Gallery to Open Second Location

Longtime Chelsea gallery 303 is shopping for a second location in the neighborhood, and may well end up at a new space under the High Line on West 24th Street currently under construction by the major Chelsea developer Alf Naman.

Gallery owner Lisa Spellman, who became one of the first to populate the neighborhood when she moved from Soho to West 22nd Street in 1996, was quick to emphasize that the move is by no means a done deal, and that the space at 507 West 24th Street is among one of many locations the 28-year-old gallery is considering. She went on to say that real estate in Chelsea is limited and put the odds of their moving into the space under the High Line at 50-50.

“We haven’t made the announcement,” she said in a phone interview.

“I will confirm that there’s interest,” she added. “We haven’t called the moving trucks yet.”

She said the second space would provide “additional architecture for the artists to work with” and noted that she’s already worked with two spaces in the past, when she moved into the gallery’s current home at West 21st Street in 2008, and had yet to close the original Chelsea space on West 22nd. With a new second space, she said she may also add new artists to her roster. “I’m always looking at new artists and new work,” she said.

The space on West 24th Street is currently owned by Mr. Naman via an LLC called High Line Partners, and will be a commercial art gallery, according to public blueprints. Plans on the website for studioMDA, the architecture firm founded by Markus Dochantschi, show an impressive two-floor layout for the space they’re building there, under the label “24th Street Gallery.”

Mr. Dochantschi said he knows which gallery is moving into the space but declined to say which one it is. Mr. Naman was not available for comment. Know anything else about this story? Email me at dduray [at] observer.com.